Finding a theme was hard because, firstly, there are so many topics I like, secondly, I had to avoid cliches theme and thirdly, I had to make sure it was not too broad nor too narrow. Lately, I have been reading facts and figures about the London Underground. Articles of it kept popping up on my Facebook page under the website Londonist.com. The reason why I was so interested in it was because it is something I use almost everyday without realising how fascinating it is. This was one of my idea I could look at (or I could focus on how I have been spending too much time on my phone?) I went to the library and looked for books about the underground tube. The books didn't help me at narrowing things down because it only states informations about it and also its history, which is expected. There are so many things I could concentrate on such as the line, the transport, the people taking it, the mechanism etc. Then, I went on Pinterest and typed in the keywords like "Tube", "Underground" and "Art" and what mostly came up was artworks on the tube map.

The image above, The Great Bear (1992) by Simon Patterson, is a lithograph which shows each line presenting groups of people like scientist, philosophers etc. Each of the category is listed next to a coloured line, which can also be seen at the bottom right of the image under the title 'Key to Lines'. What I like about this work is how the artist has juxtaposed a well-known image subtlety, which requires the audience to look at it even harder.

Another theme I like is the idea of combing two or more distinct objects to create a piece that plays with the audience mind, leaving them with the feeling of uneasiness.

I saw a video on Facebook and it showed an animated egg falling from above however, instead of expecting it to crack, it bounces off the ground. That unexpected scene made me feel uncomfortable similarly when I see the photos above. The surreal shots was created by Stephen McMennamy where he combines two separates photos making them into one photograph. Obviously he has alters the size of each object to make sure that it looks convincing and using same coloured background, made it seem the piece is a whole.

After looking at the two artists, I realised something that is similar. I enjoy the idea of making the viewer look at an art piece twice and also making them feel uncomfortable, but in the same satisfying, causing them to reassure of what they are looking at. It lead me to the idea of manipulation, fakery and trickery. That is how I found my project idea.

When I hear the world manipulation, I think of the term 'brainwashed', as if someone is controlling your mind. Then it lead me to how the media manipulates the public. I have always known about manipulation in media, especially in magazine covers. Manipulation is a broad topic because there are so many things I could look at like politics, media etc. I researched about manipulation in media because it is well known and it is easy to research as there are many articles talking about it.